IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Hirooki Goto has all of the momentum in the world heading into his title match against Callum Newman.
Goto won in his final televised tag team appearance against Newman on Wednesday, just a few days before they face off in the main event of Wrestling Dontaku 2025.
Goto’s tag win came alongside YOSHI-HASHI, El Phantasmo, and Ryusuke Taguchi against United Empire’s Newman, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan and Jakob Austin Young.
The bout headlined NJPW’s Road To Wrestling Dontaku card this Wednesday at the Grand Messe Kuramoto.
Goto and Newman had numerous sequences during the 14-minute main event, starting off the bout against each other and crossing paths in the closing minutes of the match as well.
Goto took Newman out with a Reverse GTR and then a lariat near the close of the bout. This cleared the way for the Bishamon duo of Goto and YOSHI-HASHI to work on Young, hitting their Shoto double-team finisher for the pinfall win.
Goto posed with his title in front of Newman after the result, providing a strong final image before this weekend’s Dontaku doubleheader in Fukuoka. However, in his post-match comments, Newman remained confident that he’ll leave this week with the title over his shoulder.
NJPW is scheduled to present their final “Road To” card tomorrow from Kagoshima, with the same eight-man tag match headlining the night. The card won’t air on NJPW World.
Wrestling Dontaku 2025 kicks off Saturday with the first of two nights. The singles meeting between Goto and Newman is expected to headline the Sunday portion of the show.
Here are the quick results from Wednesday’s Road To card:
- Katsuya Murashima def. Daiki Nagai
- Master Wato, Boltin Oleg & YOH def. Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles
- Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. def. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano
- EVIL, Ren Narita, SANADA, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi def. Clark Connors, David Finlay, Drilla Moloney, Gabe Kidd, Gedo & Taiji Ishimori (DQ)
- BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagu, Tetsuya Naito & Yota Tsuji def. Taichi, TAKA Michinoku, Yuya Uemura, Shota Umino & Tomohiro Ishii
- Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, El Phantasmo & Ryusuke Taguchi def. Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan & Jakob Austin Young
